Hines is growing its industrial/logistics platform, with the goal of investing more than $600M across the U.S. over the next few years.

The Houston-based company is eyeing developments and value-add acquisitions. It plans to spend $100M a year on logistics hubs to bulk up its 70M SF global portfolio.

"Hines is acquiring or developing a wide variety of logistics facilities including bulk distribution and shallow bay product," Hines Director Connor Tamlyn told CoStar. "Demand has been robust for both types of facilities, and we expect this trend to continue as users restructure their supply chains to meet the changing demands of their customers."

Dallas-Fort Worth is one of its top targets — Tamlyn joined Hines last year to oversee the company's expansion into the hot Dallas industrial market. It owns about 2M SF of logistics product in the Metroplex with its acquisition last week of DFW East Logistics Center. The three-building, 260K SF shallow bay industrial park in Irving is 15% leased.

Industrial has been thriving in Dallas. Vacancy dropped to 5.8% in Q1 on the heels of 30 straight quarters of positive net absorption. Logistics is a big force behind leasing, with consumer goods users driving 3.9M SF of absorption in Q1. Development has been active — 19M SF is in the pipeline — but nearly half of it is pre-leased.